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Friday, 23 March 2012

Scrappy go Lucky Copic Tutorial - Skin Colour Basics #1

Good Morning Everyone!

If you are following along welcome back. If you are new to my blog I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful!

Today I am doing the first of many more in-depth tutorials for Scrappy Go Lucky on how to colour with your Copic Markers. This tutorial will be covering the first tutorial for colouring skin. For the purpose of this tutorial I am using Copic Sketch Markers. The Markers used will be E00 and E11. Followed by RV10 for cheeks and lips.

Step One : To begin with you will need to select the image you wish to colour. I am using the Beach Marci stamp by La La Land. This is a cute little image and fun to colour.

Step Two: In my tutorial I will be using only two colours. The general rule when working with Copics is that you need to work with three colours in order to get the best results. I do find that sometimes there is an exception to this rule and I like to experiment. When colouring skin I have found that you can use just two colours and will still get a wonderful tonal skin effect. You can use these two colours and layer them to look as though you have in fact used more colours and still create the depth and dimension required to bring the image to life. This is especially helpful if you are just starting out with Copic Markers. So I am going to show you how you can achieve a great result using just the E00 and the E11 in the Copic Range.

To begin you will need to colour the face area with the base colour that you are using. In this case I am using the lightest colour E00 as the base colour.

TIP: Remember to colour in a circular motion when using the Copic Markers as an all over colour. This helps to give an even coverage. Also remember the tip of your Marker should never be bending. This means you are colouring too hard.To prevent this hold your marker slightly at an angle.

STEP THREE: Once you have coloured the face you can then start on the other skin areas, neck, arms, hands and legs. After the complete skin area is covered it you will need to decide where the shadows will appears on your image.

For my stamp I will be doing a centre light source. (Imagine the sun is shining straight on her face front on). This will mean that the centre of her face, front middle of the legs and the front of her hands will appear the lightest. This is where the highlights will be.

STEP FOUR: Its now time to begin to highlight. I like to begin by starting with one side of the image at a time. It is now that you change your colouring technique and use a flicking brush stroke. Remembering to start from the outside edge of your image and flicking in towards the centre of the face. I also like to break it down into sections. I will do the face first, then the neck area, followed by the arms and hands, then the legs. It tends to make it easier and I can allow each section to dry whilst I carry on to the next. Always going back and making any changes if I need too. Using E11 I start to flick my marker inwards.

STEP FIVE: You place your highlights using E11 to the left of the face and to the right of the face and to the top of the hair line.

STEP SIX: Now using light strokes with the E00 blend your E11 from where the colour just finishes. Do not colour completely over the entire E11 area. The reason for this is you will change the E11 colour and it will appear washed out. Use very light flicking strokes. You will notice that the image still appears patchy and wet therefore you need to allow this area to dry.

STEP SEVEN:You can now move on to the neck area. As you did with the face use E11 to highlight just under the chin area. Allow it to dry and move on to the arms and hands.

STEP EIGHT: With the arms and hand area highlights are place at the top of the shoulders and along the tips of the fingers. The rest of the areas remain highlighted in the lighter E00. Remember that the light source is coming from the centre or front of the image so the arms will be darker near the neck and shoulder area and the hands will be darker at finger tips near the bottom. With the front middle section appearing lighter and highlighted. Allow this area to dry and move on to the legs.

STEP NINE: The legs are highlighted using E11 at the top just under the swimming costume and near the ankles on both feet. The front of the leg is what appears highlighted.

STEP TEN: Go back over each step starting with the face, followed by the neck, arms, hands and legs using the same flicking technique. Re do the dark E11 area first followed by the E00 blending as you go. This will slowly build your image to give depth and dimension.

TIP: Never colour light over dark always using the light colour to move the dark colour away from an area.

STEP ELEVEN: Once you are happy with your result you can then using the RV10 marker to and blush to your images cheeks, lips and any extra highlights. To apply blush to the cheek area use a light circular motion. If there is too much colour use the E00 to blend outwards. Flicking colour away from RV10 area blending with the flicking technique inwards to centre of the face.

Now that the skin area is completed you can move on to the next section of the image. Like the costume, hat or hair.

I have used navy blue card stock for the background colour and navy blue die cuts to make water splashes. Which have been highlighted with glitter to give a water effect. Yellow card which I have used a paper punch to scollop the edges. The black and white polka dot paper is adhesive paper prints from DCWV. The green checkered paper is from Making Memories Embellishment paper Kids Collection. And the chipboard SUN letters are K.Ology from K&C Company.

I'm so glad I took the time to read through your instructions, they are really simple and easy to follow. I enjoy colouring images but unfortunately I'm not very good at it. Thanks to your easy to follow tutorial I'm ready to tackle a new project :)

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments. I am glad you find my instructions easy to follow. I would love to see what you create. Feel free to let me know if there is anything in particular you would like a tutorial on.

Thank you for taking the time to comment. You know I think its a learning process for all of us. Thats why I love to share any tips or ideas that I have learnt along the way. I love to use Copics and I share what I have learnt through trial and error to help you love them too.

Hi Fiona, thanks for your great tips. I have been using copic markers and La La Land Stamps for sometime now, and can't get enough of either. I also use the copic markers to make my backing paper. As this way I can use the same shades as those used in the pictures. To save on ink I colour the outer boarder just enough to sit under my design. I use the colourless blender on different materials to add texture to the backing papers.

Hi Everyone and welcome to my blog. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for stopping by. I would really love for you to become a follower, or possibly leave a comment so that I may visit your blog too. Giving us the opportunity to exchange ideas and provide endless possibilities.